Are Sims or Reed Poised for a Breakout Season?

I gotta say, I was looking forward to hearing a good argument on the negatives on JRob. Man...you failed hard.

 

Dispute it and back it up then instead of throwing insults around.

 

It might help if we actually have a fair competition for the starting positions instead of automatically giving it to the veterans like we did last year (Mccourty,Cox,McCain). Those 3 were arguably the biggest culprits of our pass defense being ranked near the bottom.

 

Competition is our biggest need at this point. Jrob and co are not trying to compete for the sb this year, only a playoff spot. We need a push at every position and THAT will lead us to results. We have competition at every position outside of qb, ot, oc, te and fb thus far, that's a good sign for progression. Our o looked good-great last year.

 

Wasn't trying to insult, sorry it came across that way. I legitimately wanted to hear a good argument about why JRob has done a bad job, and I just think you missed the target on your arguments. These arguments are at best speculative because they are all too early to call. There are a number of moves JRob has made that were no brainer great moves, and none I can see that were no brainer bad moves. While some of these could turn out bad, every GM has their misses. I think JRob's year 1 was outstanding. Here are my thoughts on your arguments for his shortcomings so far:

1. Wesley Woodyard extension.
-This was a move to decrease his pay and make him expendable in the future. He likely would've been cut had he not accepted it. It appears to be a good move.

2. Kevin Dodd draft pick has turned out terrible.
- Far too soon to call this. He was injured all year and hasn't even been a part of the team for 12 months. Give him this season before you make a call on that pick. He was drafted as depth to be given time to develop, like smart GMs do.

3. Austin Johnson draft pick hasn't turned out well. Maybe he can still develop though.
- Again, drafted as depth, to be given time to develop. He could very well start over Sly this year, and I'm glad they are making him compete for it. He got significant playing time in every game weeks 10-17. No reason at all to say this hasn't turned out well.

4. Derrick Henry, subjective I guess. Most are happy with the pick, I'm still not. It's not a bad choice. I just think there was better choice.
- Henry gained 627 yards in his rookie year as a backup to the #1 rusher in the AFC. He had 4.5 yards per carry and never turned the ball over. Demarco Murray is 29 and no one knew if he was going to come back to form like he did. Henry was not only an insurance policy but a solid future RB. No one expected Murray to have the year he did last year or for Henry to fall as far as he did in the draft (45 overall). Both happened and were great for the Titans. Out of the remaining picks in the 2nd round, there is only 1 I see that I would prefer to Henry in hindsight (Michael Thomas), and none I would've preferred at the time of the draft.

 

The thing is, I never said J-Rob was bad. He's a good GM, I just said he wasn't perfect. I came around on the Woodyard extension. J-Rob maneuvered very little guaranteed money again, so I'm fine with it.

As for the others, my opinion really hasn't changed. Dodd to me is a complete bust. I felt that he would be before, and after a year of play it's only reaffirmed it. He hasn't flashed anything, and has looked exactly like I thought he would - foot injury or not. You don't draft depth at 33 when you have as many holes as we do.

Austin Johnson wasn't a terrible pick and still isn't. We needed a NT, and I wanted us to draft one. AJ wasn't my first choice, hell he wasn't even my second choice, but at least he filled a need and I felt he was a decent player. He looks like he'll be a solid backup NT and possibly even a starter on a desperate team. That's honestly not a terrible 2nd round choice on paper, but I'm not looking at paper. I'm looking at the guy I wanted getting passed up, A'Shawn Robinson.

The thing is, when judging picks, people generally only look at the picks themselves. People don't look at who gets passed up that are better (like an A'Shawn Robinson) and they don't look at needs and contributions. They just look at how good that individual is. The Titans could draft a better QB in the third round this year than a CB, but who's going to help our team more get to a SB this year? Probably the CB. That's the way I feel about Henry. I love Henry. I wanted him before we got Murray. I don't hate the pick, and to be honest I probably wouldn't even dislike it all if I felt we did a better job of addressing concerns in the 2nd round, but we didn't.

My point wasn't to bash J-Rob, it was to point out that he's not perfect, and to counteract the belief that a lot of fans have about sitting there with false-hope and saying yes to everything just because he's made the call. It's not exclusive to him, and it's that way with nearly every team's fans. I choose to think on my own accord though, and I've always felt very comfortable with those conclusions I've came to.

 

I think this may be one of those hindsight is 20/20 type of deals. Clearly the plan last year didn't work out the way the team thought they would, but honestly it was clear earlier on that all the CBs on the team weren't ready to step in earlier on. Cox bombed out, McCourty got hurt, then never quite got to form, and all of the free agent pickups kind of flammed out. I don't think the team went with the CBs they did last year simply because they were vets. I think it "may" have been by default because they failed to land starter level talent and the CBs they had just turned out to be that bad. The only reason why in my opinion we saw Reed and Sims was simply because the CB play was JUST THAT BAD. The team hands were forced and at moments they looked some what ok and other moments a deer in headlights. That's to be expected though, if they looked better than that they probably would have been drafted higher.

What I'm saying is they are far from locks as replacement starter level, but are far without talent. At the end it's a big problem and without addressing that need this team will struggle to seriously win against teams in our division regardless how well we run the ball. It has to absolutely get addressed and I hope they do.

Personally, I actually applauded the team last year to cut Cox knowing he just wasn't working out mid season. To me that would have been the definition of sticking with veterans. But they rolled the dice and gambled on rookie talent with a low draft pedigree. To me that was very un-Titan-esque. Hopefully this year we see more competition...We have to too to take the next step forward as a franchise.

 

Like @NotoriousZEUS said you don't draft depth in round 2 when your roster is filled with holes and mediocre players.
Dodd is a bust because it goes beyond the injury, his desire and effort has been questioned.
I like the Henry pick, Murray won't play forever and Henry fits with what we want to be as a team.
Johnson...I'd rather have drafted Robinson but I'll trust the staff on evaluating players.

We had needs at WR..Mike Thomas would have been a good pick. TE Hunter Henry as well.

 

Yeah. With looking how great the second round was last year, especially in particular to our needs and with 3 draft picks...I just don't see how anybody can't say J-Rob missed it big time.

Ogbah, Spence, Ngakoue all had good seasons. Even Jack played better than Dodd with injuries.

Reed, Robinson, Jones were all better defensive line option.

We passed on a ton of DBs that we needed that turned out well including James Bradberry, Vonn Bell, Sean Davis, and Xavien Howard.

We left a bunch of receivers on the board we could've used included Hunter Henry, Sterling Shephard and most notably Michael Thomas.

Derrick Henry is a successful football player, but when I look at the circumstances, both what we have as a team and need as well as what we left on the table...it's for sure our best pick in the second round, but not something I can sit there and say is successful. Maybe not bad either, but to me spending a 2nd round pick which is extremely high for a RB when we already had Murray would be equivalent to us drafting OJ 5th overall this year. Good player, bad draft choice. You have to need the position to take it unless you've got the luxury to make those type of picks.

And as for Dodd, I agree with you. Not only that though, but 1. I think he was overrated with some cheese and inflated stats. 2. He was never a fit for our system. He can't play standing up, and never could. He's probably the most unathletic "pass rusher" I've ever seen. I could sit there and say ok, give him more time if he was a project player, and considering how bad he is one could still say he is a project player, but the reality is he lacks any sort of skills or physical abilities for anyone to ever hope he turns out to be anything. Not to mention, a seeming lack of motivation that will make him even worse than he already is.

J-Rob nailed the rest of the draft I felt. The Conklin pick was fantastic, the Byard pick-up was good, as was the Sharpe, Reed, and Sims pick-ups. Tretola maybe able to develop into a starting guard one day. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that we don't have a 2nd rounder this year. Maybe that's J-Robs kryptonite

 

I agree, 2 of 3 2nd round picks were disappointing. We left some positions of greater need on the board.
The 2nd round hasn't been successful for us for a while, its not just JRob

Hunter Henry, Myles Jack and D Henry/M Thomas would have been a better draft. Or like you said one of the Bama DTs